Heist of the century: Millions stolen from the Louvre in just 10 minutes

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00:00The world's most popular art museum, the Louvre, became the scene of a brazen robbery when a trio

00:05of thieves stole millions of dollars worth of jewelry in under 10 minutes, right in front of

00:09stunned visitors and staff. Here's everything we know about the daytime heist. On Sunday, October

00:1419th at 9.30am, just a half hour after the museum opened its doors, a three-person gang of thieves

00:20arrived at the tourist attraction on scooters. They then used a basket lift to get up to a second

00:25floor window, using many gas-powered chainsaws to break into the building. Paris prosecutor

00:30Lorbe Bacow told BFMTV that the masked and hooded crooks had placed the basket lift at the museum

00:36themselves and had, quote, threatened the guards who were present at the scene. Footage shows one

00:41of the criminals cutting through a glass jewelry case with a concrete saw as horrified visitors

00:45watched on. According to Bacow, evidence suggests that the gang of bandits were very prepared and

00:50organized, with France's culture minister, Rashid Adati, describing them as,

00:54highly experienced. The theft took place just 270 yards from the Mona Lisa and saw nine of

01:00France's most valuable pieces of jewelry snatched. By 9.40am, the two robbers had left the building

01:06through the same window, got to the ground using a spider lift, and met up with the third crook

01:10who was there waiting. At this point, they all got onto scooters and fled, although in their rush to

01:15escape, they left behind several key pieces of evidence, according to French authorities. One of the

01:20stolen objects, an emerald set imperial crown containing more than 1,300 diamonds that once

01:26belonged to Napoleon III's wife, Empress Eugenie, was found broken outside the museum,

01:31La Parisienne reported. Police arrived minutes later to also find some of the tools used in the heist,

01:36including the spider lift, the concrete saw, a yellow reflective jacket used by another one of the

01:41thieves, a blowtorch, two angle grinders, gloves, gasoline, and a blanket. Thousands of baffled visitors were soon

01:48evacuated from the museum, which was shut down for the rest of the day and remains closed into Monday.

01:53The crooks made off with a treasure trove of royal jewels, from a diamond and sapphire tiara of Queen

01:59Maria Amalia to sapphire emerald sets tied to Napoleon's wives. They also took tiaras, a reliquary

02:06brooch, and a bodice knot that once belonged to Empress Eugenie. No information has yet been released on

02:11the identities of the thieves, nor has it been ruled out that they were foreign nationals, but authorities

02:16believed this was most likely the work of organized crime. French President Emmanuel Macron vowed that the jewels and the robbers

02:22would be found, stating on X that the theft is an attack on a heritage that we cherish because it is part of our history.